Neighborly dirt prompts Toyota to delay shipment of 23,000 vehicles

Toyota Motor Corp. has to delay shipments around 23,000 vehicles as it still needs to clean them up from a layer of greasy soot and tar that fell out from neighboring Nagoya Works. Toyota said that it needs around a months to clean up the mess left by the factory operated by Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal Corp.

Around 20,000 of the cars were bound overseas except North America, while the remaining 3,000 units will be shipped to other parts of Japan, a spokesman for Toyota has confirmed. The mess occurred on June 22, 2014 when the Nagoya Works suffered a power failure.

To cope with the power failure, Nagoya Works needed to burn off an excess buildup of coke oven gas, which lead to “massive smoke generation.” The cleanup of the vehicles covered with the mess is expected to be completed this week, although Toyota has to delay export shipments by a week to one month, depending on the market.

Toyota has assembled around 5,000 workers to clean up the mess and make sure that the vehicles are ready to be delivered, according to a report by Nihon Keizai business daily, adding that the carmaker may also seek compensation from Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal for the damage to its built vehicles.

Nippon Steel has already issued an apology in a release, saying that it “deeply” regrets any inconvenience experienced by “neighborhood residents and other related parties.” [source: automotive news - sub. required]

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